contacting wholesalers

cro117 · Post by **cro117** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 7:04 pm

hi, i have given up on my local fish stores that are trying to sell me very sick shrimp and was hopeing to contact a wholesaler directly. however, wholesalers are aperently a closely gaurded secret. i have even had a a few shop owners tell me that they don't use a wholesalers. has anyone tryed this before? i have had no luck. i have tryed asking shop owners directly, internet search, and the phone book. if anyone can help me in my search, or if you know of any in my area, i would greatly appreciate the help. i live in lancaster, ca, 93534.

edinjapan · Post by **edinjapan** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 1:12 pm

cro117 wrote:hi, i have given up on my local fish stores that are trying to sell me very sick shrimp and was hopeing to contact a wholesaler directly. however, wholesalers are aperently a closely gaurded secret. i have even had a a few shop owners tell me that they don't use a wholesalers. has anyone tryed this before? i have had no luck. i have tryed asking shop owners directly, internet search, and the phone book. if anyone can help me in my search, or if you know of any in my area, i would greatly appreciate the help. i live in lancaster, ca, 93534.

Have you tried the local aquarium club? There are several large clubs in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas that have subgroups that specialize in planted tanks. A major component of the planted tank' fetish' is algae control and most of these people use shrimp for this purpose. Failing that you could make a trip to Japan...

samosette · Post by **samosette** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 1:22 pm

No LFS will give up their "bread and butter" wholesaler. I've never had any LFS tell me who their wholesaler is. What you can do is ask for their location of their wholesaler and start from there? I'm trying to find my LFS's wholesaler but all i know is where they are located, near my area and I'll go from there. I'll let you know if anything pans out.

cro117 · Post by **cro117** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 12:24 pm

thanks for the help, i haven't thought of a fish group. i'm not orginized enough to join one but i might ask them for help.

plan 'B', which i am starting to consider more seriously each day, is to make up a store name, advertise in the phone book, and wait for a wholesaler to contact me.

samosette, if you live in southern ca please keep me posted. i'll let you know if i have any luck too.

Lotus · Post by **Lotus** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 7:16 pm

If you pretend to be a store, the wholesalers will probably start asking you about your tax number and lines of credit, etc.

You're probably a lot better off trying to get something through aquabid.com or traveling around to different stores.

I've personally made three-hour trips (each way) just to check out fish stores or go to fish club auctions. I even spent most of a weekend in Las Vegas in fish stores and did the four-hour drive home with various "treasures." I know others who have made much longer trips.

cro117 · Post by **cro117** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 8:00 pm

sigh... i belive you may be right. i wish there was a one stop shop with all you need. maybe if im good when i die there will be a wholesaler in heaven.

gnome · Post by **gnome** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 8:57 pm

A number of the shops around here (in the S.F. Bay Area) get their shipments from Hayward, and *these* come from Southern California, I believe. But beyond this, I have no idea... Yes, ask around. There's a guy who lives in Canoga Park who often auctions his crystal red shrimp on AquaBid. Definitely look into local hobbyists. I got my cherry reds from a fellow member of SFBAAPS (San Francisco Bay Area Aquatic Plants Society). He gave me a half-dozen for free at a plant swap. I wanted to pay him, but he said he was trying to build Karma

.

If you suspect that the shrimp are becoming weak from the care that they receive at the retail shop, you can always ask them (the shop) to special-order for you and to request that they call you as soon as the shrimp come in so that you can take them straight home in the wholesaler's bag/water. A lot of times, though, they arrive in a weakened state, in water that is (by this time) high in ammonia and it's to your benefit to purchase them *after* the initial die-off so that the retailer incurrs the brunt of the losses. I get the hardiest specimens this way - the ones that have managed to make it past the two-week mark at the store.

Don't get discouraged... Look into the mom-and-pop stores. They're often the ones who go most out of their way to please potential customers.

-Naomi

beckypyyeung · Post by **beckypyyeung** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 12:07 am

Hi cro117,

It appears that you live in California. If you do, you may order shrimp from Mustafa, the founder of this marvellous websit. As far as I understand, Mustafa ships within the United States.

Becky

amber2461 · Post by **amber2461** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 11:34 pm

I second Becky on that one

thezone · Post by **thezone** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 11:23 am

many lf fish shops get their shrimps/fish from fish farms in asia.

cro117 · Post by **cro117** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 4:50 pm

i wonder if mustafa will have tigers and cherrys avalible at the same time. i would also like to find a wholesaler so i can get some watermelon crabs, but that is a complaint for another forum i suppose. anyway, the search goes on.

kahunabill · Post by **kahunabill** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 10:22 pm

hey southern california folks,

anyone going to the san diego tropical fish society gathering this sunday april 10th?

if you are, what you bringing for the auction?

any shrimppers coming?

cro117 · Post by **cro117** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 12:36 pm

never heard of it. do you need to be a member to show up? what do they usualy have?

Lotus · Post by **Lotus** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 8:54 pm

I've been to it a couple of times, and it really rocks!

Plants, fish and equipment at really great prices.

You don't have to be a member to go and buy stuff, but you do if you want to sell. I was originally planning to go sell stuff (including cherry shrimp), but I won't be able to go this time.

Last time I picked up an electric blue crayfish, as well as a bunch of tanks, plants and fish. It's well worth the trip if you're into fish.

shrimpboyLA · Post by **shrimpboyLA** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 8:54 pm

I get some of my shrimps from one of the wholesalers here in LA.

I also import them myself from time to time. So far I have only gotten stuff for my own client's tank ( I set up some tanks for my business clients ) and of course for my own tanks.

They get their shippment from Asia weekly and lately they have been getting Cherry Red, Rudolph, Bee ( low grade pattern ) and Tiger shrimps.

Let me know if any of you guys want me to get some for you. I'm not set up to sell shrimps so my wholesaler will be packing them for me. Given that they are wholesaler, they dont like to see small orders ( ie. 12 or less ). I know the manager of the shipping dept quite and he will usually pack small orders for me but I dont want to push it.

So yeah if any of you guys are having problem finding what you want then you can contact me and see if I can help.

One important thing...please make sure that you have a healthy planted tank for the shrimp to live in. I really hate to see these cool liitle guys die having made the trip here all the way from ASIA.

I can be reached at shrimpsLA@gmail.com

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